Chapter 29
Kakashi was in a daze as he watched his new students train with his Icha Icha Paradise in his hand. They were obviously trying to hard to impress him, but it was a losing battle as Kakashi found the Toad Sage's erotic details on the white haired heroine far more impressive.
However, the main character reminded him so much of Anomie that he found it difficult to not picture her in his mind. He shook his head with a smile, as he thought of her reaction to finding out she was the inspiration to Jiraiya's most popular book in the trilogy.
"Are you just gonna sit there?" The new Genin asked and Kakashi didn't so much as glance up.
"Yeah, you're our sensei. You are supposed to teach us," the smaller and scrawny looking Genin commented.
"When I see something worth teaching, you'll know," Kakashi's drone was teasing and the students groaned.
"I'm starting to think our sensei is just lazy," the third Genin whispered and Kakashi slightly chuckled.
Slowly he closed his book and stood, noticing his students immediately tense. He slowly motioned for them to come closer. "Fight me then. I'll go all out. If you win I'll teach you a Jutsu."
They didn't need to be told twice and they practically bounced up to fight. Kakashi immediately began picking apart their weaknesses, noticing the way the small and scrawny Genin, Yako, was much too quick to hide behind his teammates. The second Genin, Hiroi, was much too quick to take the blunt of the damages as if he were the strongest Genin who ever lived. The third one made Kakashi the most frustrated. The third one, Ohori, was strong with high levels of potential, but obviously thought his teammates weren't worth his time. He followed all the rules and had perfect form, but he abandoned his teammates to gain the upper edge.
Trash. Kakashi thought with narrowed eyes.
So Kakashi failed all three of them that night.
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The vibrant colors of the grass and the beautiful flowers, blooming and open, did nothing to prepare Anomie for the heat of the sun. Her legs were sore and her tongue was parched with a thirst she could barely contain. Kimimaru had lost much of his arrogance in replace for a swift and biting irritation that fit him much more than the arrogant lap dog she had grown to know.
"It is not wrong to complain," Anomie commented, glancing towards Kimimaru with a slight smirk as she adjusted her katana over her shoulder, flooding bits of her Chakra into her feet so she could remain perched on top of the branch.
"I have no reason to complain." Kimimaru stated in reply as his face visibly glistened with sweat from the humid air that rushed over his skin. Anomie raised a brow, but chose not comment on the obvious fib.
"The target is quite under protected," she commented instead as she glanced over to the small girl with bright red hair that proved to be an obvious Uzumaki trait (or so Anomie had heard).
The small child, with her thick-rimmed glasses, balanced her tiny-legged figure on a fallen branch. Anomie's eyes scanned the four men, finding their Chakra levels to be weak and insignificant. Yamamoto had been the only real threat.
Through the barrage of trees and the partition of leaves rested the vibrant red hair of a child. The child couldn't have been more than four years old and her skin was as clear as porcelain from the neck down. Her cheeks were stained with light freckles and her eyes were stained pink.
"Yama-kun isn't back yet?" The little girl asked, and the man turned his head to look at her before rolling his eyes and glancing away.
"Obviously not," he replied, causing the edges of the little girl's lips to cast down.
"When will he be back?" She asked, and the ninja sighed.
"I don't know." He stated in a monotone. One of the ninja from beside him chuckled.
"Bet'cha he met a girl." The second ninja announced, and if Anomie could roll her eyes whilst incorporeal, she would have done so then and there.
"Figures the boss is out havin' fun and we're stuck here under babysitting duty," the first ninja muttered. "You think it was that dancer?"
Anomie decided the time for observing was over and she allowed her smoke body to dart in between the bushes. Her feet turned corporal first, and she felt her own skin once more sink her further into the ground. Only when she could feel her own skin again, did she miss the open air. The fear of being torn apart by it was less daunting as days went by on and on again. It felt weird to feel anything against her skin after the nothingness of Xiaowei's body.
Her eyes filled with tears as she allowed the henged black hair to fall over her shoulders. Her dress was ripped with a perfect illusion. Anomie began to wonder if everything that made up the smallest fibers of her being were illusions. She ripped her arms through the thorns and the bushes, alerting the ninja into fighting position as her form fell to the ground as she neared them. She made sure to allow the stray branch to cut her lip, just before she made herself visible.
"Please help me," she whispered, tasting the droplets of her own blood on her tongue.
No one can help me.
"It's a kid," one of the ninja stated and the other frowned.
A kid who could slaughter every last one of you if she wanted…but men never saw a woman as something dangerous at first glance.
"Please help me," she repeated, her hair tangling with every movement as she dug her nails into the soft dirt of the forest.
"Enemy ninja?" One ninja asked, and Anomie's senses alerted as the small red haired Uzumaki child peaked out from behind the two brutish ninja. It would be so simple for her to reach out her arms to the two ninja, stroke their cheeks and simultaneously slit both their throats.
So simple, but Anomie had always been patient. She believed in the hunt. It made the feeling of their blood so much warmer, and it was the only time she felt warm. It was sadistic, but she was done fighting the sadistic need in her heart. She was done opening her legs to fill that same thrill and warmth. She was done craving someone's touch like oxygen when she could just as easily steal another's air. To put it simply, she wanted to make them hurt in the worst way possible.
The more pain she caused strangers, the less she was likely to cause to someone she actually cared about.
"I was traveling with my father…we were attacked." Anomie caught the eye of the red haired child, and briefly wondered if this child was the only surviving Uzumaki in this group. It was all the more reason to be careful in procuring her.
"By who?" The two ninja were skeptical, but Anomie was sobbing to hard to properly answer. Her lips were trembling and she was nearly hyperventilating.
"Please…" She cried. She had seen many cry before out of fear and her memory had always been rather skilled. Mimicking devastation wasn't the worst chore and she did it smoothly. Maybe if she could have a redo of her entire life and she was never sold as a whore and seduced as a ninja, she could have become an actress.
Surely that profession is an honorable one. It was the only time a white lie was applauded so valiantly.
Anomie tried to wipe the excess tears from her eyes, finding that some weren't as fake as she would have liked. Perhaps there was a part of her that was always ready to cry or perhaps there was too much water in her heart and it was all just waiting to spill out somehow. She still remembered her mother once telling her that water was the most useful trait in a human's personality. It was effective to mold yourself like water to what surrounds you.
"What happened? Speak slowly." The ninja's voice was a calm lull, obviously trying to soothe a distraught girl that Anomie had become.
"I don't know what happened," Anomie sniffed out, her voice shaking her shoulders trembled in hyperventilation. "It all happened so…fast. This man….he had great big shoulders…he was fighting someone…a girl with hair so white that it nearly blinded me."
"And your father?" The ninja asked and Anomie shook her head, tears leaking from her eyes.
The two ninja's eyes connected and Anomie's attention was drawn to the red haired girl who neared her. The Uzumaki child's hands remained behind her back, approaching cautiously. Before Anomie could question what the child was doing, the girl pulled a small flower from behind her back and offered it to her. It was long, with many intricate pink buds covering the stem. Anomie stared at it, feeling her heart burn.
"It's a Hēza flower…" The pink haired child said as Anomie's eyes filled with tears. If she closed her eyes, she could nearly hear Rin's voice. "In the language of flowers…"
"It means protection." Rin said with a smile that filtered through Anomie's wicked thoughts.
Anomie's hands trembled as she took the pink flower. She crushed it to her chest and fought the desire to set fire to the forest.
"I'm Karin," the pink haired girl greeted. "I lost my parents too…"
Anomie saw a flicker of strength in that girl's eyes and for a moment, Anomie saw herself.
"You can travel with us if you want…we will find your father. It's not like Yamamoto to cause such travesty. We will-" The first ninja began, but was interrupted when a spike of bone came flying his way. He spun around, just barely fast enough to catch the spike in his hand. The other ninja barely managed to do the same, the bone cutting through his arm in a clean hole.
"We're under attack!" The second ninja hissed, and blinked, her eyes scanning the forest trees for Kimimaru.
"What do I do?" Anomie asked in a panic.
"Take Karin and get out of here," the first ninja ordered in a shout, and Anomie nodded, grabbing onto Karin with so quick a motion that the girl was near winded.
"But what about Takeshi and Misashi," Karin asked in a loud.
"And what about my father?" Anomie asked in reply. "Bad things happen. You run if you don't want to die."
She dragged the small girl through the trees, her back straightening the moment they were out of sight. "Let me go! I have to be with Takeshi and Misashi!"
"Really?" Anomie turned around and knelt in front of her. "What can you do? Can you fight? Can you do anything but whine?" The flower in Anomie's hand felt heavy and she tossed it at Karin's feet. "Can you do anything but make wishes and pick flowers?"
Karin blinked as if she had seen a ghost, and Anomie's black hair faded to white in a cloud of smoke. "I know. You're probably about to ask a million questions. Save it for a girl who cares."
Anomie pressed her pointer finger against Karin's neck, squeezing a trigger point that almost immediately caused the girl's eyes to roll back into her head. Karin's knees buckled underneath her and Anomie grabbed onto the child's waist, hoisting the kid on her back.
"The sweet sound of silence," Anomie whispered, glancing over her shoulders to the trees, briefly wondering if Kimimaru was prepared to face two separate ninja at once. He acted so tough and experience that Anomie nearly forgot that he was still a child.
She placed the thought behind her without a second of hesitation as she jumped through the trees with Karin in her arms.
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Anomie was always an entertainer by blood. That meant that she had to be able to read people. She had to know when they were happy or miserable. The essence of her job, even as a ninja, and she was to be able to see someone and know if they were on their breaking point.
The small child Karin had reach that point and it was gushing in small waves from her eyes.
"What have you done?" Karin asked and Anomie tilted her head to the side with a slight smile.
"So much," Anomie replied as she adjusted her hair so it was in a tight braid. During this movement, Karin tried to get up and run. "Run if you want, but I'll find you. I'll always find you."
The child ran and Anomie finished her braid, simultaneously tossing one of her shuriken into Karin's leg. The child cried out and her legs buckled from underneath her as she crumbled to the ground. From there, Anomie walked slowly towards the child, braiding her hair so it formed a bun at the base of her skull. The action was nonchalant and carefree as Anomie knelt down next to where Karin was crying.
"Does crying make you feel better?" Anomie asked, tilting her head to the side as Karin attempted to shift enough so she could reach the weapon lodged in her quad.
Karin didn't answer and Anomie dislodged the shuriken from her leg with a slight smile. "Why did you do this?"
"Maybe it's because I wasn't hugged very much as a child," Anomie mused as she held her hand over Karin's wound. Her palm hovered and she watched as Karin attempted to flinch away. "I wouldn't move if I were you, unless you want the other leg to be in the same condition. You will find that I have no problem with maiming you."
"What do you want?"
"It's not about what I want, kid, it's about what delicious blood runs through your veins." Anomie's palm lit up with a green hue and after a few seconds the wound on Karin's leg closed with a weak layer of skin. "I can't fully heal a wound, so one wrong move will open this back up and you will scar."
"If you were going to heal me then what was the point of hurting me at all?"
"Pain is the best way to make a lesson stick," Anomie patted Karin's cheek lightly before standing. "A little pain never hurt too much and I like inflicting it."
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"You look like you have experienced a handful with that one," Kimimaru's voice was cold as he jumped from the trees to find Anomie, lifting the child Karin by her throat. "Is that the proper way to handle a child?"
"It's how I want to handle you…besides, she's annoying," Anomie answered simply, watching as Karin's face grow red enough to match her hair. The small child's eyes were practically bulging from their sockets as the child attempted to gain oxygen in her lungs. Slowly her eyes closed and Anomie dropped the passed out child to the ground.
Kimimaru's brows disappeared into his white bangs and slowly any trace of emotion disappeared along with it. "Do you enjoy it?" his question was riddled with curiosity as he glanced to his sensei with a moment of weakness.
Anomie took in his question with a grain of salt, balanced in between her fingers as she stared into Karin's barely living face. Slowly Anomie tilted her head and her eyes darted to meet Kimimaru's gaze. "Yes." She didn't used to like it—the pain and sea of disparity in a person's eyes as she snuffed the air from their chest and suctioned it with calm grace. But now, she realized with a weak smile, it was the only thing that brought the spark back into her heart.
Kakashi's face clouded her vision, well perhaps it wasn't the only thing.
But by now he had to hate her...she had made sure of that on their parting, and yet some weak madness in her bloodstream wished that he didn't.
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"You can't go on this mission," the Third Hokage stated firmly as he met Kakashi's pointed stare.
"You will find no better a captain," Kakashi spoke, only half believing it as true. The doubt in the Hokage's eyes tore the emotion apart.
"We have one chance at this, and your past encounters don't regain my faith in you—your skill is remarkable and your control over your emotions is remarkable," the Third Hokage's voice turned grave. "However, when it comes to Koneko...you have not given me a reason to trust you. After all, she was the reason you attempted to hang your headband, was she not?"
Kakashi's fists clenched at his sides as his heart burned in his chest. But he was a ninja before he was a man, and he buried it all, but Anomie stood inside the extravagant house, aligned with wilting trees and dried flowers. She was forever in that locked up house in his head. Even in his dreams she never smiled his way, and he found that it was slightly easier to slide the sliding shoji door over her porcelain face. He slammed it shut and bowed his head to the Hokage.
"My interests are biased, but my results are what matters. If anyone can find Koneko, it is I. If anyone knows her, it is I," and even as Kakashi said it, he knew it wasn't true. He doubted if he ever knew her at all.
The Third Hokage sighed, "you have failed the last three Genin teams, may I ask why?"
Kakashi looked slightly off guard from the question, "I sent in detailed reports."
The Third Hokage folded his hands underneath his chin, "I would like to hear your reasoning."
"Teamwork," if Kakashi could give any word to describe the proper ninja way, that would be it. Maybe the Hokage knew the impact of such a word, and maybe that was what caused his eyes to slightly narrow.
"Not many teams can develop the type of necessary teamwork that you seek, Kakashi," the Hokage said with a low degree of authority.
"Then I'll search for one that does," came Kakashi's low retort.
"You once abhorred teamwork, and see how far you've risen."
But Kakashi didn't rise, "my team is dead," and it was all my fault.
He has fallen so far that he nearly feared there was no picking himself back up. His body weighed down like lead and a part of him knew that no amount of lies could pick him back up. Rin was dead. And it's my fault. Obito was dead. And it's my fault. Minato was dead. And it's my fault.
Anomie just a memory—and even when he tried to run after her through the flames that she disappeared. But all that he gained was the smoke that she left behind and it was filling his nose and battling against his lungs.
She was in his blood stream and he hated that she coursed through his veins as if she were a cold. No matter how many times you get over her she always comes back at full force, just a bit more deadly. And he loved her. There is no denying it anymore. He hated who she has become, but he loved who she was and he saw that part of her in her eyes. And if he had to go through flames to find her, he would.
"I am not certain you are ready for a mission with Orochimaru," the Third Hokage finally stated with his palms covering his mouth. Kakashi bowed his head, more so out of shame rather than respect.
"An—Koneko is a wild card," Kakashi cursed himself during her name. It sounded too sweet on his tongue. He was afraid to get addicted to that sound. "I know her weaknesses. I know how to handle her."
The Third Hokage sighed, "You are adamant about this."
"I need to prove that I can-"
"That you can put the village first?"
"Yes..."
"That you can kill anyone that jeopardizes this mission," including Anomie—no especially her.
"How am I supposed to train the next generation if I am running from the line of fire." And she was the smoke.
"This will be your last chance," the Hokage warned. "If you fail, I won't allow you even the whisper of her name."
"I understand," came Kakashi's reply, riddled with a foreign emotion that nearly brought him to his knees.
"Kakashi, we need Orochimaru's location," the Hokage warned. "The village's secrets are in his hands and I fear the destruction that will arise should he choose to attack."
"I will not fail."
"It's not like you will be alone," the Hokage announced. "I decided to let our new Anbu captain test out his leadership abilities. Who better to shadow him than the old Anbu captain."
Kakashi had always been a modest man, but finding out he had been replaced and he was to follow his replacement was a humble idea. "Who is he?" Kakashi asked instead.
"Uchiha Itachi."
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"I don't know which is worse: killing children or kidnapping them," Anomie sighed as she leaned over towards the tiny fire and placed a small log in the flames. Kimimaru glanced at the Uzumaki girl who had fallen under a deep sleep with the help of Anomie's sleeping draught.
"They're both equally as annoying," Kimimaru agreed, as he mirrored the older woman's movements.
"At least one is quiet," she replied.
Anomie noticed, with calm bemusement, that the kid was basically copying her every action. She had never had a child take such an interest in her, so having him become her shadow was perhaps amusing. Of course, she doubted she was fit to be anyone's role model.
"The forest is packed with enemies," she whispered. "Get some sleep. I'll keep watch and we will leave at daybreak."
"I'll keep watch. You sleep," Kimimaru retorted, to which she scoffed.
"Kimimaru," she knelt down in front of him. "You are a strong kid, but you grow weaker as day pass by. You need your rest."
"So do you," he retorted without missing a beat. Anomie wanted to retort, but he continued. "Don't think I haven't noticed. You've been different ever since you came back from your last mission. Perhaps the one in need of rest isn't me, Anomie-sama."
A gush of wind swept by and nearly blew away the fire. She glanced towards the sky, finding it was swept with clouds that covered the stars in a white haze. A trickle of nervous flares flickered up her spine. "Go to sleep Kimimaru. If something happens, I am not so weak as to be unable to wake you."
She stood, feeling that she successfully managed to anger the boy who dreamed of becoming her. It didn't matter, because everything he said was true. She had changed. Her power was weakening as days went by and now she found it was growing harder to maintain corporeal form. Possessing Sakura for so long a time had been a mistake. Serving Orochimaru was likely leading her down a cold and shadowy place, but it didn't matter.
"A little longer…" she murmured, watching as her hand began to turn to smoke. She soaked her palm into the fire in attempts to bring the fire back into her shortening life. She caught Kimimaru's eye as he lay against the grass.
"You can't die," he mumbled.
"Everything dies," she replied.
"Not you."
Anomie stared into the flames for what felt like an eternity, ignoring the white noise. "Especially me," she whispered into the flames just before they blew out like the fuses on a candle. She stood in one quick moment, drawing her katana from her side. Kimimaru didn't need any words before he was standing.
Anomie glanced at Karin, sleeping soundly and unaware of the cold and the danger. The white haired girl's breath was visible from her lips, emitting a cool white frost. "Anomie-sama," Kimimaru's voice broke through the girl's stupor.
"Do you feel that?" She asked, dragging her blade over the ground. "Killing intent?"
"We're too close to Orochimaru's hideout," Kimimaru said, and Anomie bit into her lip. "We have to retreat."
"It's too late," she replied, noticing the killing intent had risen. "Take Karin and run."
"It's about the rain," Kimimaru announced.
"I know," she said. "It's Konoha and that is my battle."
Kimimaru looked visibly angry, which was odd as he was the most level headed child she had ever met. "If you die…I'll kill you."
"Dually noted," she replied. "Go. Try not to get burned."
Anomie glanced back towards the tree that surrounded her, A sudden rush of apprehension flickered throughout her senses. She gave a parting glance towards Kimimaru who appeared to be looking out into the trees as well.
"What do you mean burn-?" As if on cue the trees exploded with splintering grace as Anomie tossed a Jutsu its way. "Ah."
Anomie then proceeded to lift Karin as if she were a ragdoll and tossed the girl his way.
"Well, try not to die," he said it in a monotone, but Anomie could see the sincerity in his eyes.
"Can you carry her?" Anomie asked in return with her body amongst the burning trees. Sometime she forgot that he too was not much older than Karin. Kimimaru snorted in return and applied Chakra into his muscles.
"What if they're strong?" he asked before their parting.
"I will do what I have to," Anomie replied, jumping amongst the trees that remained aflame. Fire on such a cold and frigid day was quite a sight and oncoming rain was a lingering threat to douse the flames. But of course, the burn against her skin would at least give her enough abilities to disappear into smoke without the rain casting her away.
That being said, her smoke body flickered into the flames.
"We should have expected her to light the forest on fire."
The voices below caught her attention and she scanned the area down at the ground, finding a ninja with only the glint of his forehead protector and a single piece of cloth from his shirt to block out the smoke. She hesitated, as she could have sworn she heard more voices besides an unrecognizable ninja.
"I see you, Koneko," the eyes of Itachi Uchiha caught her attention when his body flickered in front of her with a spiral of crows. She didn't get a chance to retaliate when that lone ninja at the ground shouted a Jutsu that caused water to rush towards her like a tornado.
The only solace she had was that her reflexes were faster, and her body turned corporal before anymore harm could be done. She fell to the ground, soaked to the bone with the ninja's Jutsu. Her blade fell from her hands as she attempted to keep herself from turning to smoke while still wet.
She controlled the pain on her face as she glanced up towards Itachi, who had body flickered behind her with a kunai at her throat.
"There are better ways to get a woman wet," Anomie stated with a growing smirk.
"I'm afraid you've lost, Koneko," Kakashi's voice was a lullaby as the lone ninja's henge wore off and all that was left was his face.
"You're quite right—chances are, besides your mother, you two don't know a single thing about women," Anomie set Kakashi a coquettish wink, ignoring his comment.
"There's no time for jokes," Kakashi replied, taking a step forward.
"I nearly forgot—how insensitive of me Kakashi—your mother is dead."
Kakashi didn't look burdened by Anomie's comment, and instead said, "If you move, he will slit your throat. If you turn to smoke, the water will tear you apart. You're finished."
Anomie's shoulders shook a musical giggle, "so what? Are you two planning on taking me back to Konoha? I love a good road trip. Did you come up with this plan, Kakashi? Exploit my weaknesses?"
The Anbu mask over Itachi's face blocked out any visible emotion, but she was relatively certain his face was blank underneath anyway.
"Good plan, I'll admit it," Anomie said was she glanced at the trees. "But I do love being underestimated as well." She didn't give them a chance to reply as her seals that covered her body all activated at once and kunai shot out with bolt like accuracy. It was a wonder that Itachi Uchiha managed to dodge them at all, considering he was so close to her.
But, judging by the blood dripping from the arm he now clutched, he didn't get out unscathed. Anomie gave a glance to the sky, her eyes darkening with the ominous threat it revealed. The moment her body turned into smoke, taking a chance on the water that covered her body from head to toe. The Chakra that flooded her bones gushed out in attempts to keep her body together. She knew, when her body turned corporeal once again, that she was covered head to toe in blood that likely happened with the rearrangement of her bones back together.
It took too much energy to stand, so the moment her feet landed on the tree branches, she collapsed. She didn't have much time to catch her breath, as she wasn't stupid enough to underestimate two Shinobi as powerful as Kakashi and Itachi. She swiftly pulled a scroll from her weapons pouch, recognizing it as the summoning scroll from Yamamoto.
She knew the dangers of summoning an animal without practice, but she didn't have any options but to go for it. Her Chakra was still abundant, but less than it had been prior to the mission. Likely, this would be her last Jutsu of the night if she wanted to wake up to see the sun in the morning.
She bit into her thumb as she opened the scroll and spread her Chakra into her hand, pushing out every last bit until she lost her breath and had to gasp just to fill her lungs with air. She signed her name and just as quickly dotted her fingertips in blood. The seals of the contract traveled up her arm in black ink as she used her Chakra with precision to make the seal. She could only hope that the animal would actually come forth after she murdered its master.
However, instead of an animal, all she got was the feeling that her body was being suctioned into a thin tube in so rough a manner that she lost her footing and fell face first into the vortex that swallowed her and everything around her—the trees, the dust, and the ninja she attempted escape from.
By the time she regained consciousness, she was met with the intense stares of a thousand eyes, surrounding her. She sat up, so abruptly that all the red eyes moved back.
"You are not Yamamoto," one voice stated in the dark.
"No. I believe Yamamoto is dead," another said.
"This little child killed Yamamoto?" the voice of the eyes let out the most ghastly of chuckles.
"I was the one who killed him. I make no excuses," Anomie stated as easily as she would any other statement.
The red eyes bobbed in the dark with the motion of their laughter, "and you took his contract with us? That is low for a Shinobi."
"It is low…but I could have done worse," Anomie said. "What are you?"
"We?" the voices resonated around her and she stood up, finding that the sound of crunching swept underneath her feet. Their bodies swept up in intense flames, covering the silhouette of the birds.
The moment the light swept through the cave, she noticed that the cave was filled with bones, many shattered underneath her boots.
She didn't care if they were human bones or animal, all she cared about was power and she had never felt such raw Chakra since the release of the Nine Tailed demon.
"We are phoenixes," they all said at once.
"Phoenix? I have never heard of a phoenix," Anomie admitted, glancing around the cave. "Is this how contracts usually go down?"
"Only if we don't know our summoner," one of the birds said, its deep voice rumbling.
"We saw you were in trouble," another said.
"Your body is breaking outside, and too much strain will make you die. Why do you risk so much at one time?"
"If you were to ask us, your behavior seems reckless."
Anomie took a moment to regain her composure, able to feel the dull ache of exhaustion spreading throughout her bones. "To be honest," she said, "I don't much care about what happens to my flesh when there is so much I must still do."
All the birds moved back into the dark, their bodies quaking with fire before they vanished before her very eyes.
"We do not know you," their voices echoed and spread warmth over her skin. "We did not know Yamamoto and we hardly considered him our contractor."
"His affinity was not ours and his Chakra was not like ours."
"All that's left is to discover how you last in our world."
Their voices cut to a dim nothing, and she saw nothing but the dark empty and desolate ground by the time she saw light again. The sun was blaring down against her skin and the moment she was exposed to that dry air it was a wonder that a single drop of moisture still existed in her body.
Her bones were still sore, and she was still covered in blood by the time she staggered up, she caught sight of the abysmal amount of thin trees that remained around her. The branches were too thin to support anyone's weight, and there wasn't enough leaves to bring about shade from the heat of the sun.
Her blood was dripping from her hands by the time she felt a blade press against her neck. She weakly darted her eyes towards the figure who held the blade, her lips pressing together tightly at his face.
"Well, Itachi," Anomie murmured as her hand scrapped against the bark of the tree as she attempted to continue standing. Instead, her strength gave out and she was left with the feeling of dirt and small rocks against her knees. "All this time it took to get me on my knees. Maybe you could take your time to enjoy it."
Author's Note
In Hanakotobi, we call the Sakuraso (桜草) or rather, Primrose, means desperate.
Well, my flower geeks, my peeps, my homies (I'll stop). Here it is. The long awaited chapter that probably only made three people smile (and one of them was me). Anywho, I'm done with finals and onto my next year in college. I'm gonna try and tap out chapters while I have the chance since school is not on my mind currently.
Anomie is officially turning into the character I wanted her to be. I want her to put her past behind her and slowly embrace who she is and become okay with it. She's not the protagonist. Few of my characters are. She's more like an anti-hero and I'm proud of the girl I've written because she has so many faults that make her so tough to write, and I love it.
I hope you all continue to support me in her story. Pray for Kakashi, cause he's in for a ride with this one. Ahaha *cries*
-Ulyana (peace out homies)
